The Charms - Pussycat

I get this package through the mail, very charming...uh…hmm...sorry. So I tear open the package with my eager paws, not a clue about what’s on the inside but just diggin’ the surprise like it’s Christmas morning and I’ve been a good boy, well, almost but Santa felt generous and what I’ve done isn’t all that bad, so he forgives me and I finally get a real present instead of a bowl of cold porridge and a lump of coal - and lo and behold - it’s the Charm’s Pussycat CD and the cover is filled with all these wondrous colors - yellow, blue, red, maroon – and two slender but downright sexy girls are yankin’ on each other’s hair half grimacing but really getting’ a rush over it and now they’re even more sexy, so I wanna know what’s on the inside, what’s the music like. So I listen to the CD and it adds about 15 years to my life, like the fountain of youth. These audacious punk renegades gave me an injection of some good old rock 'n roll, made all my aches and pains go away and now, suddenly, I can put my arm above my head and do the jitterbug. Loved it. I grew up listening to the MC 5 (they played my high school senior party), the Stooges, Bob Seger, and Suzi Quatro (the Pleasure Seekers) and they were great and all but I'm absolutely taken by the Charms. None of them Michigan rockers got a jump on the Charms, no way - and I'm lovin’ the idea that Boston’s favorite band is droppin’ by White's Bar during their nationwide tour.

And the Charm's music, that ever lovin’ irreverent sassy rock ‘n roll music, well - it’ll chew you up and spit you out – and then yer gonna like it, see...so let me tell ya, just take a listen and you’ll know what I’m talking about, ‘cos you’re gonna feel it in your loins like it’s all too wet to woo and then you’ll realize that these chicks are singin' them good ol' Kosmic punk blues like Mark Lindsey when he was a rack jobber in Portland, steppin’ out like a cobbler – just check out Action, or what about Gimme That Shot - sounds alot like Joan Jett meets...hmm...Joan Jett. And they romp and wail “down on me style” on DBID like Janis doin too much Southern Comfort and just a coupla black beauties in order to sing it bluesy and soulful and to stay awake for the next round. PERFECT.

The Charms borrow a “Be My Baby” riff for Dream but revive it with an injection of raw power and dash of Ronnie Spector singin “oh, oh, oh, oh”. The aggressive “come hither but don’t fuck with me or else” tease of Pussycat had my head spinning. I just love the tussle of sexual politics. Losing My Addiction had the power of Eddie Cochran and the angst of the Who mixed with the sheer willfulness of Courtney Love... don’t scoff, Hole in their prime were absolutely real and glorious...just ‘cos I say so!

The Charms’ Pussycat CD is like takin' a hit of pure adrenaline. This is rock 'n roll the way it should be played like if Ronnie Spector and Reg Presley had a love child and the godmother was Kate Pierson. The Charms slug me right in the chest with their energy and balls. MY-MY-MY Generation seems kinda tame by comparison like an oldies show or something equally as creepy. Nope this is the real thing. It's Iggy singin' 1969 at the Delta Pops Festival and me not believing my eyes or ears. Kim Fowley and the Runaways could take a lesson from these upstarts. Who do they think they are, anyway?
Best band in Boston I'd say
We need them here to inject a little life in the party...a little sparkle, rattle and hum, maybe?
This is a neck twistin' instant paralysis of every stodgy impulse to sing karaoke or join a political party. God Bless America and the farfisa and...oh yes, God Bless the Charms.

Peace
Bo White
8/17/05